Six things, laid out plainly

I have bought bath mats for forty-odd years. This is the first time a child has ever asked to stand on one.

Six things these soft little animal mats get right that a lifetime of sensible beige ones never did, from a grandmother who went back for a second design before half-term.

Pat Holloway · Customer · Leeds · 5 min read

I had better say who is talking before anything else. I am Pat, I am 68, I live in Leeds with my husband Brian and his spaniel Wilf, and two afternoons a week I collect our grandson from the lady on our road who minds him. I have kept house for forty-odd years and bought bath mats the whole time, and I never once thought one was worth a second look, never mind a letter. Well. I have changed my mind.

The mats I am writing about are from the Animal Print Bathroom Mat Collection at Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly finding women like me the things we did not know we were allowed to have for a few years now. They are soft bath mats with animals on them, and some of them are cut into the shape of the animal itself. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.

I first saw them at the childminder’s. Denise has six little ones in and out all afternoon, hands washed before tea, boots off at the back door, and yet her bathroom floor is dry and her mats are exactly where she put them. I had always assumed she was forever mopping. Then one Tuesday I went up with our grandson to wash his hands, and he would not come out of the bathroom until he had stood on the panda. There is an orange one in front of her bath with two pointed ears and a white muzzle, and a grey cat face by the back door, and the children take turns on them. He talked about the panda the whole way home. On the Thursday I asked her about them, plainly. She has three. Read on.

The orange one, in front of our bath at home. The grandchildren call it the fox. The boutique calls it a bear. Nobody in this house minds.

Here is what forty-odd years of bath mats taught me. They come in two piles. The sensible ones, beige or white, that look like they came out of a hotel and do their job without anybody ever noticing them. And the children’s ones, bright plastic things with a cartoon on, that look like a toy and feel like one under your feet.

A bath mat was either grown-up and dull or cheerful and cheap. I had stopped expecting one that was soft, did its job properly and made somebody smile.

These are the first mats I have owned that manage all three, and having lived with them through a wet September, two sleepovers and a spaniel who thinks the bathroom is his, I can tell you it comes down to six things.

The morning they came. I opened them on the bed to have a proper look, which Brian thought was very funny, until he picked up the cat.

2

It stays where you put it

The second thing I noticed at Denise’s, and the thing I would put top of the list for a busy house. Each mat has a non-slip base that helps keep it in place, and on our tiles it simply stays put. Small feet run on and off it all evening, Brian stands on it to shave, Wilf lies on it when he thinks nobody is looking, and I have not had to bend down and straighten it once. For a woman who has spent forty years nudging bath mats back into place with her toe, that alone was worth writing about.

My turn, first thing. It was exactly where the grandchildren left it the night before.

★★★★★

Three grandchildren and a Labrador through my bathroom every weekend and the mat is still where I put it on Monday. The old one ended up in the hall.

Christine B., Framlingham

3

It soaks up the drips

Two children out of one bath is a lot of water, and most of it used to end up on the floor. The surface on these is absorbent, and it helps keep the floor round it cleaner and drier. After bath night the little footprints stop at the mat instead of carrying on across the tiles, and I am not on my knees with a towel before I can run my own bath.

After bath night at ours. The little footprints go as far as the cat and no further.

★★★★★

Both boys out of the bath and dripping, and the floor round the mat was dry. My old one would have been wringing wet.

Susan K., Woodbridge

5

Two sizes, for the bath or the basin

Every design comes in two sizes, 40 × 60 cm and 50 × 80 cm. The larger one is just under half the length of our bath, so it covers the floor where you actually step out. The smaller one is about as wide as a pedestal basin, which is where the panda went first, in front of the sink where the little ones brush their teeth. In a house with one bathroom and everybody home at half-term, having the right size in the right place makes more difference than I would have guessed.

The smaller panda, in front of the basin. About as wide as the basin itself.

★★★★★

I measured before I ordered and the small one sits perfectly in front of my basin. The big one is by the bath now as well.

Jean M., Halesworth

6

It is not only for the bathroom, and there are fourteen designs

The boutique suggests them for bedrooms and doorways as well as bathrooms, and that is exactly where Denise keeps her grey cat, by the back door. Ours has gone one better. When I went back for the panda, it ended up beside the bed in the spare room, ready for the grandchildren’s half-term sleepover, and I have been told in no uncertain terms that it is staying there. There are fourteen designs in the collection in all, the orange one, the panda and the grey cat I have, and a whale, a little fish on waves, a rabbit, teddies and more cats, all in the same two sizes and at the same price. A few have a word in the picture as well, if you like that sort of thing.

The panda, by the bed in the spare room, the night before half-term. First thing their feet touch in the morning.

★★★★★

Bought the whale for my grandson’s bedroom and the cat for my own bathroom. Both are as bright as the pictures and both stay put.

Valerie T., Leiston

These little mats, against the ones you have been making do with

You can carry on with a sensible mat nobody notices, or a plastic one nobody wants to stand on, like I did for forty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

About the price

The 40 × 60 cm is £26.95, down from £54.00, and the larger 50 × 80 cm is £36.95, down from £74.00. Every design in the collection is the same price.

I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these are in the sale while the first autumn stock goes, and once a design sells through in a size, that one is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have spent more than £54.00 over the years on bath mats that went in the bin inside a twelvemonth and never made anybody smile, so £26.95 for one the grandchildren fight over made it an easy yes.

And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.

If bath night at yours starts with ten minutes of calling up the stairs, or your bath mat has not made anybody smile in years, this is where I would start. Have a look at the designs before somebody else takes your favourite, because the first autumn stock will not wait. And if you ever find a panda on the floor of a childminder’s bathroom in Leeds, you will know where I got the idea.

Pat

THE ANIMAL PRINT BATHROOM MAT COLLECTION

★★★★☆ 4.2 out of 5 from 300+ reviews

From £54.00 £26.95

• Fourteen sweet animal designs
• Non-slip base, helps keep it in place
• Absorbent surface, helps keep the floor drier
• Soft and comfortable underfoot
• 40 × 60 cm £26.95 · 50 × 80 cm £36.95
• For bathrooms, bedrooms and doorways
• Free UK delivery

See The Animal Print Bath Mat Collection

Sale on now. The first autumn stock is already going.